This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 9-217746 filed Aug. 12, 1997, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus which is connectable to an external unit, such as a personal computer or a game machine, and, like an existing mouse, is usable as an input device for such an external unit.
While a mouse is very popular as an input device for computers, the mouse only serves as a two-dimensional pointing device to implement operations, such as cursor movement and menu selection. The actual manipulation of the mouse should follow certain rules like double clicking of a mouse button, and is not intuitive. It is therefore difficult for old people to manipulate a mouse.
To solve this shortcoming, some studies have been made to realize an intuitive manipulation such that moving a hand rightward moves a cursor rightward on the screen. One of the studies concerns with recognition of a gesture or the like by means of image processing. For example, there is an ongoing study on analysis of a motion image like a video image to recognize the shape and motion of a hand. In a case of extracting a hand by using a color, for example, as the color of a hand is skin-colored, only an image area of the skin color can be extracted. If there are beige clothes or walls on the background, it is hard to distinguish a skin color. Even if beige can be distinguished from a skin color through some adjustment, the color tone changes when illumination is changed. It is thus difficult to always extract a hand. There is a scheme of computing motion vectors between frames to analyze an object in motion. In this case, no significant problem would arise if there are a small number of objects in motion. If many objects are in motion, however, the number of motion vectors is increased considerably. This increases the load on the computation of motion vectors between frames, making it extremely difficult or impossible to identify the motion of a target object.
In the conventional scheme of capturing image data using capturing means like a video camera and analyzing the image data, the analysis flow and information to be analyzed are fixed. When the characteristics of image data of a target object to be analyzed (e.g., the shape and motion of the target object and the conditions of the environment in which the object is present) changes with time, a burden is put on a specific processing section so that the analyzing process cannot follow up the change.
One way to solve this problem is the use of a high-performance computer or a fast transmission system to cope with image processing (e.g., processing of 30 images per second) in real time even if the load is increased. When the characteristics of image data of an objected to be analyzed do not vary significantly, however, this method cannot make the best use of a high-performance computer or a fast transmission system, resulting in a very poor cost performance.
In short, the conventional image processing system has a difficulty in implementing low-cost and robust analysis on image data of an objected to be analyzed in accordance with a variation in the characteristics of the image data. That is, robust analysis on image data of an objected to be analyzed in accordance with a variation in the characteristics of the image data requires a high-performance computer or a fast transmission system which leads to a cost increase that stands in the way of home use of the image processing system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus which can accurately analyze and recognize the motion of a target object to be analyzed without making a sacrifice of the process response time in response to even a large variation in the characteristics of image data of the target object.
An image processing apparatus according to this invention comprises image capturing means for capturing image data based on image capturing parameters for determining an image capturing operation; image processing means for performing predetermined image processing on the image data captured by the image capturing means; and alteration means for altering the image capturing parameters based on characteristics computed by the image processing means. This structure makes it possible to accurately analyze and recognize the motion of a target object to be analyzed without making a sacrifice of the process response time in response to even a large variation in the characteristics of image data of the target object.
An image processing apparatus embodying this invention comprises image capturing means for capturing image data; image processing means for performing predetermined image processing on the image data, captured by the image capturing means, based on image processing parameters for determining an image processing operation; and alteration means for altering the image processing parameters based on characteristics computed by the image processing means. With this structure, it is possible to accurately analyze and recognize the motion of a target object to be analyzed without making a sacrifice of the process response time in response to even a large variation in the characteristics of image data of the target object.
An image processing apparatus according to this invention comprises image capturing means for capturing image data based on image capturing parameters for determining an image capturing operation; image processing means for performing predetermined image processing on the image data, captured by the image capturing means, based on image processing parameters for determining an image processing operation; and alteration means for altering at least one of the image capturing parameters and the image processing parameters based on characteristics computed by the image processing means. This structure makes it possible to accurately analyze and recognize the motion of a target object to be analyzed without making a sacrifice of the process response time in response to even a large variation in the characteristics of image data of the target object.
An image processing apparatus embodying this invention comprises image capturing means for capturing image data; image editing means for editing the image data, captured by the image capturing means, based on image editing parameters for determining an image editing operation; image processing means for performing predetermined image processing on the image data, edited by the image editing means; and alteration means for altering the image editing parameters based on characteristics computed by the image processing means. This structure makes it possible to accurately analyze and recognize the motion of a target object to be analyzed without making a sacrifice of the process response time in response to even a large variation in the characteristics of image data of the target object.
An image processing apparatus according to the invention comprises image capturing means for capturing image data based on image capturing parameters for determining an image capturing operation; image editing means for editing the image data, captured by the image capturing means, based on image editing parameters for determining an image editing operation; image processing means for performing predetermined image processing on the image data, edited by the image editing means, based on image processing parameters for determining an image processing operation; and alteration means for altering at least one of the image capturing parameters, the image editing parameters and the image processing parameters based on characteristics computed by the image processing means. With this structure, it is possible to accurately analyze and recognize the motion of a target object to be analyzed without making a sacrifice of the process response time in response to even a large variation in the characteristics of image data of the target object.
An image processing apparatus according to this invention comprises image capturing means for capturing image data; image editing means for editing the image data, captured by the image capturing means, based on image editing parameters for determining an image editing operation; image processing means for performing predetermined image processing on the image data, edited by the image editing means based on image processing parameters for determining an image processing operation; and alteration means for altering at least one of the image editing parameters and the image processing parameters based on characteristics computed by the image processing means. With this structure, it is possible to accurately analyze and recognize the motion of a target object to be analyzed without making a sacrifice of the process response time in response to even a large variation in the characteristics of image data of the target object.
This invention can accurately analyze and recognize the motion of a target object to be analyzed without making a sacrifice of the process response time in response to even a large variation in the characteristics of image data of the target object.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.